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The Saddest Easter Egg Hunt Ever

Poor Toby is going through a major separation anxiety phase right now (well, he kind of alwaysis). So, on Easter Sunday, when Alex took Toby outside the church to start hunting for Easter eggs (while I stayed for the end of the service), Toby was not pleased. Alex snapped these sweet shots--oh, what a face! Those eyebrows kill me!!!

Luckily, Toby cheered up once I came out to join them. Funnily enough, he didn't really "get" the concept of the Easter egg hunt. Why would he put random eggs into a random basket? But then I told him to help me put the eggs "away," and he got really into it once he thought we were just cleaning up! :)

Our son just turned three, and this was really the first year we did a "hunt". We hid plastic eggs with the candy inside, so there was lots of incentive and happiness when he discovered what the real treasure was. Not sure that he would've been so excited about us hiding the real eggs that he decorated the day before, though considering how many he ate, maybe he would have!

I have very similar pictures from my 16 months old's first Easter egg hunt last week. He was very confused by the whole concept and finally just carried the same two eggs (one in each hand) around while the older kids found the eggs.

We had an Easter egg hunt around the house, which our 2 boys loved, and we also finally got around to putting up a little wooden playhouse in our back garden which they have been in and out of since! Our eldest (5) even asked if he could sleep in it :)

Cute! I do think it takes a while for lots of different holiday traditions to make any sense to little ones. Egg hunt? Santa? Even "flaming" birthday cake. WEIRD ideas, on the surface, really. (By the way, I LOVE Toby's flyaway hair-do. SO funny and cute!)

I've never heard you mention church before! I'm so curious if you're Mormon since you seem to know and work with so many LDS bloggers, etc. It's totally none of my business though, of course! I would have thought you were more of the liberal/intellectual/agnostic type --Maria

Our 17 month old daughter is having her bouts with separation anxiety too. The husband always reminds me that these intense phases come right before they take a real developmental leap of independence. This helps ease my mind! ; )

Our daughter loved her first easter egg hunt this year, you're right something about the idea of cleaning up and putting things in and out of a basket. It was really sweet to watch her look in places all on her now, it seems like she really got it- the hunt part. not the why the hell are there eggs everywhere!

I did a little post today on my blog called- "What I know about Parenting I learned from Puppy Kindergarten" not sure If I'm alone in this but there are similarities... ; )have a great day!

I agree with another commented up above- I'm so curious about your religious beliefs! I know it's absolutely none of my business and I mean no judgement by it at all, I just feel like you're such an open and honest blogger that it would come up? Maybe you could post about it sometime, if it wouldn't be too invasive or threaten to start too much drama?

I am really glad to hear someone else besides Mila always seems to be going through separation anxiety. It seems that it has been forever. It is actually really challenging for me, but I'm trying to focus that one day she will be an independent person who will be able to step away from mom without having a complete meltdown. Preferably earlier than say when she's 18. Sigh. Hope you all are managing through it okay too! xoxo

My little boy did two Easter egg hunts this weekend and the first was a total bust! He just stared at all of the other kids & then took an hour looking at the ONE egg he found. When I asked him how many eggs he had he looked at me and said, "Only one but I would like more." It killed me b/c the hunt was over by then! The second one (in our backyard) went much better since he had no competition and could take his time getting the hang of it :)

My son is probably around the same age (17 months) and had the same reaction to our easter egg "hunt" for him. We just threw 10 of them in our yard and gave him his basket and he quickly started tossing them in. Then dumped them out, then picked them back up...and did that about six times before he grew tired of it.

maria and kelly, thanks for your questions! very happy to talk about anything and answer any questions :)

i'm agnostic/atheist, which is why religion doesn't come up much my blog. we do celebrate christmas culturally. my grandfather was a vicar, actually, so we went to an episcopal church sometimes growing up. i have friends from all religions, as you say; as well as relatives in our family who are christian, jewish, hindu, etc.

i love the community of a church--how all ages come together to sing and rejoice. so we wanted to take toby for easter this year so he could experience and enjoy that.

but in the end, yes, i'm agnostic/atheist, and hope to raise toby to make his own choices, form his own beliefs and be very open minded and accepting of different religions and views.

This post was adorable! I love Toby's outfit... he is a stylin' little dude!

Also, thanks for "coming out" atheist/agnostic because we are too and get a lot of judgement for it (we live in the midwest). A study my husband just read found that people subconsciously trust atheists less than they trust rapists. I think this is just appalling. Ugh. If only people knew how many of us there are out there who are not evil demons! Ha, ha! Anyway, thank you. Your blog is the bomb and so are you.

Thanks for answering Joanna! I'm a born-again Christian and I feel the exact same way about respecting and honoring friends and family with different religious beliefs. Thanks for your honesty and great blog!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww, I read that another blogger had a young child and so they did a trial easter egg hunt the day before (or a few days) to teach him how to hunt for eggs. ;) Maybe next year little Toby! xoxo A-

Sorry to say, I think I can top Toby's sad egg hunt: my 4 year old is in a full leg cast (broke her leg), so she dragged herself around the lawn to find the eggs. We took a video, but I think I will only share it with her when she's older and thinks it's a little bit funny looking and sweet.-Martita

What a sweetheart :) I can totally relate to this post. My little guy will be 2 in May and we have many similar experiences. From the "major separation anxiety" to the not being into the egg hunt. Little boys are so sweet!

My son who is a little older than a year than Toby did not get the concept last year. This year I was amazed to watch him on the hunt for eggs. He was even racing other kids to get to an egg first. Its amazing how much can change in a short span of time.

Precious. He looks very confused/yet sad that you're not there! I had separation anxiety throughout kindergarten - Grade 2, only with my mom though. I guess I was a late bloomer in that sense! My Easter weekend was a part of Good Friday service, studying for final exams on Saturday, and Sunday church service and then a delicious meal at my longtime boyfriends grandparents house.

I was a little surprised when you said you were agnostic/atheist, however I admire you for coming out and saying that on such a well-known blog, frequently viewed by probably slightly opinionated people. I visit your blog daily, and love the tips and the mixture of topics. Too many blogs focus too much on themselves (ie. weddings, babies, husband, etc), or too much on beauty (ie. I don't need that many reviews of a lipgloss), etc. I love your relationship posts, as well as your travel info and your tidbits about your life! I dream of one day living in NYC, and its great to see that normal people live there as opposed to just the rich and famous.

Love your posts, Joanna! My boys are 20 months and at this weekend's egg hunt Theo (my eldest) reached for an egg the same time as another girl. She let him take the egg but the next 10 minutes was him following her trying to give the egg back!

I love this! My daughter is 16 months old and my mom sort of "prepped" her for an easter egg hunt, meaning for the entire week before Easter while I was at work my mom would put a cheerio in an egg and hide them in the living room. We only did a hunt in our backyard on Easter but I think if she would have had to compete with other kids for the eggs it would have been game over. She really liked picking up the eggs when they were easily spotted but wasn't much into hunting them and quickly lost attention. Love your posts and stories!

The first thing I saw was Toby (so sweet) with one egg in his hand. He looks so sad, like he could be in a Dicken's novel: "Please sir, may I have some more" Then I read on to find out it wasn't the lack of eggs but the lack of mom!! Hope he brightened up later!

These pictures are absolutely adorable. I love that shirt Toby is wearing too. I don't have any little ones yet, but we did the easter egg hunt thing with my nieces and nephews. It was so fun to watch them running around like mad collecting all the eggs, and so hard to snap any pictures of them! Holidays are the best when spent with kids, a great excuse to re-live the fun and excitement.

Oh Toby, it gets better sweetheart!Israel did not like the Easter egg hunt but this year was a little better. He still didn't rush the field of eggs but by the end he was pretty proud of the basket he (we) filled with eggs.

I can't tell you how much I love hearing that you are agnostic/athiest. LOVE. I'm an in-the-closet athiest so it's nice to see that there are others! :) I just listened to this podcast: the Hooray-theists. You might enjoy it, too! :) Thanks for being so honest! --Megan

Poor Toby, he is soo cute. I think as a child I used to have separation anxiety from my mom too. She instilled tough love on me, and left me alone more often as I got older...I turned out okay! I mean I went away for uni, and my MA so? That's one way to deal. I'm sure he will grow out of it regardless though. :)

Poor Toby, he is soo cute. I think as a child I used to have separation anxiety from my mom too. She instilled tough love on me, and left me alone more often as I got older...I turned out okay! I mean I went away for uni, and my MA so? That's one way to deal. I'm sure he will grow out of it regardless though. :)

Bow Point NurseryThanks this made for intresting reading. I love your wordpress theme, i frequently come back here and i dont know why. I just seriously like your web site lol… I just now read something simular to this on That Are i believe they may of stolen the blog?